Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Getting back on its feet: Medical travel industry in Singapore

Singapore is still mainly a popular destination for business and holiday travelers but its status as a medical travel hub still remains to be established. Recently, however, the Singapore government has seen a significant growth in this portion of the travel industry – there is a significant increase in the number of patients traveling to the country for medical treatment in 2011 and 2012. From the reports, there is also reason to believe that 2013 will be even better for Singapore.

In the past years, the Singapore government reported that its medical travel industry fared worse than expected. For instance, from the report in 2008 that included a figure of over 640,000 medical travelers, only a little more than half of the figure represented the patients that went for medical treatment. The smaller portion was actually representative of the family members that accompanied the patients.

One of the reasons for Singapore’s lower numbers of medical travelers is the price of treatment. The price of medical care in Singapore continued to rise, making it seem less appealing to patients who sought affordable medical care. As a result, Singapore lost business to countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and India, which offered cheaper health care.

However, things could change to its advantage. As Steven Lash, president and CEO of Satori World Medical, mentioned in an interview, patients may go beyond considering benefits other than just the cost of treatment.

This seems to be supported by recent data as it indicates that the growth that Singapore’s medical travel industry has seen in recent years is due to its expertise in high-end specialist care and surgery. The Singapore government has taken note of this fact as well, and has promoted quality of service over cost considerations.